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Saturday, May 17, 2014

If you've read Chapter 23 of Soul Deep in Horses, you might have gotten the impression that my horse Stormy, The Most Beautiful Horse On The Planet, is a bit lazy (in an ever so charming kind of way), and you'll understand his reasoning behind it.

And so it was that he was absolutely appalled when I used him to help mark trail for the Owyhee Trail Challenges with the other Old Man, Krusty. From Stormy's point of view, you see, I took him out of retirement once again.Look at his face!

Besides the indignation he feels at being un-retired, Stormy has always hated being cinched up, no matter how gently or slowly I do it. He pins his ears and will try to bite, if I'm not careful. I can only think it brings back memories of being a racehorse, and having that stretchy cinch cranked as tight as it will go, to hold that postage-stamp-of-a-racing-saddle on his back.Pinned ears! Mad face!

I couldn't help myself; I took a video as I saddled Stormy up. You can see by the expression on his face how appalled he is that he's being saddled; and when I cinch him up, you'll see him pin his ears at me - even though it's not tight.

He wears his rather offended face until I mount up, but once we got going and out on the trail, he forgot that life was so bad - particularly when he found excellent grass to munch on along the trail.

The Two Old Men spent a couple of days marking trail up the canyon, and Stormy decided that it wasn't such a bad unretirement job, after all.

Poor Stormy does look unhappy with having to go to work. My Mischief has been in retirement so far this year. I suspect he'll be a bit annoyed when I finally get around to saddling him up. Thanks for signing me up for the newsletter and for the very nice blog pitch.